In this biography
Quick facts
- Born
- 1924
- Died
- 18 May 2013
- Birthplace
- Gwangju, Gyeonggi, Korea
- Country
- South Korea
- Nationality
- Not independently established
- Known for
- Economic administration and cooperation
- Public role
- Former prime minister
Why this life matters
His work connects specialist economic administration with the later institutions of international cooperation.
Timeline
Key moments
Regional cooperation
Chaired KOPEC.
Study, banking and teaching
Nam studied at Kookmin University, worked at the Bank of Korea and pursued graduate economics before joining university teaching.
The contemporary World Bank briefing identifies a doctorate from Oklahoma State University and a professorship at Sogang.
His movement between banking, academic work and government gave the career an economic-policy foundation. The doctorate was an earned qualification, unlike the honorary awards that sometimes dominate later political biographies.
Finance and planning under Park
He became finance minister in 1969. His ministerial career encompassed banking policy and the 1972 emergency debt measures. He later served as deputy prime minister and head of the Economic Planning Board.
PECC’s memorial dates that planning role to 1974–78.
The economic administration worked through ministries, finance arrangements and private enterprises. Its growth programme should therefore be evaluated as collective government policy, rather than credited wholesale to a single economist.
Premiership and trade institutions
His formal term as prime minister began 22 September 1980 and ended 3 January 1982.
He subsequently chaired the Korea International Trade Association and participated in later economic and international-cooperation institutions.
The premiership crossed from specialist economic administration into broader coordination of government. Subsequent trade work continued the outward-looking theme through a different kind of institution, beyond a Cabinet term.
Pacific cooperation and later life
He helped establish PECC and chaired its Korean committee from 1982 to 1993. The organisation announced his death in Seoul on 18 May 2013.
This later activity makes his story more than a list of ministerial appointments: economic cooperation became an institutional project beyond national office. The memorial’s praise reflects a participant organisation’s assessment, while the career itself belongs within the political setting in which the policies were made.
Sources for this section: [2]
Quick answers
Frequently asked questions about Nam Duck-woo
- Can a ministerial biography establish an entire policy’s impact?
- It can identify a participant and an office. Evaluating outcomes and causation requires evidence beyond the appointment itself.
Keep exploring
Lives connected to this story
- Park Chung-hee
Compare a connected political career and the institutions in which it developed.
Sources and further reading
Explore the evidence
These references support the biography and offer further reading. Official records, first-person accounts and independent reporting provide different perspectives; image records document attribution and licensing.
- 1. Lee Hyeon-jin, Encyclopedia of Korean Culture / AKSNam Duck-woo
Named historian’s account, not necessarily AKS’s institutional view. Birth day conflicts with 1970 briefing; university shorthand is less precise than contemporary/PECC records.
- 2. Pacific Economic Cooperation CouncilPassing of Dr Nam Duck-woo
Institutional tribute; later direct open 502. No current role or proof of individual causation inferred.
- 3. World Bank Group Archives, folder1772562Korea travel briefing, May1970: selected biographies
Contemporary staff dossier, not whole 91 pages; public disclosure is not a public-domain grant. Nam’s birth day conflicts with AKS, so year only is used.
- 4. Office for Government Policy Coordination, KoreaFormer prime ministers: selected rows
Unnumbered/dashed preceding intervals are not silently labelled acting; the list explicitly supplies formal dated terms.
